Moons of Uranus – Names & Size of Planet Uranus Moons – PlanetFacts.org The Moon Moons of Uranus Uranus has 27 confirmed natural satellites in its orbit. Unlike most moons named after Greek mythological characters, the moons of Uranus are named after the people in William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope’s literary works. Uranus has 5 major moons: Titania – named after the queen of the fairies in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. It was discovered in 1787 by William Herschel. Titania is composed of rock and ice and its surface is dark and mildly red. It is the largest of the moons of Uranus with an estimated 1600 km diameter. Oberon – Second only to Titania in mass and size. It is also named after a character in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”- the king of fairies. It was discovered in the same year as Titania William Herschel. It has an equatorial radius of 761.4 km. Umbriel – It was discovered by William Lassell on October 24, 1851.

It was named after a character in “The Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope. Umbriel is mostly made of ice with few portions of rock. It has a mean radius of 584.7 km. Ariel – The brightest of the moons of Uranus. Aside from craters, canyons are all over Ariel’s surface much like Mars. It was discovered along Umbriel in 1851 by William Lassell. Ariel is the name of a character in “The Tempest” (Shakespeare) and “The Rape of the Lock” (Pope). It has a 472 km diameter. Miranda – It has a diameter of 470 km. Among the moons in the solar system, Miranda has a very unique feature. Its surface seems like it has been put together in a random fashion. Astronomers believe that Miranda has shattered numerous times before and has been reassembled. However, there is no conclusive proof for this theory.

The minor moons of Uranus are: Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Mab, Belinda, Perdita, Puck, Cupid, Francisco, Caliban, Stephano, Trinculo, Sycorax, Margaret, Prospero, Setebos, Ferdinand I’m doing a project over Uranus Bickstar this planet is awsome abby planets are really cool io think that the wed is the best and more people will like it too 😀 OpTiMuS pRiMe Uranus' Moon Titania - Universe Today Universe Today by Matt Williams Like all of the Solar Systems’ gas giants, Uranus has an extensive system of moons. In fact, astronomers can now account for 27 moons in orbit around Uranus. Of these, none are greater in size, mass, or surface area than Titania. One of the first moon’s to be discovered around Uranus, this heavily cratered and scarred moon was appropriately named after the fictional Queen of the Fairies.

Discovery and Naming: Titania was discovered by William Herschel on January 11th, 1787, the English astronomer who had discovered Uranus in 1781. The discovery was also made on the same day that he discovered Oberon , Uranus’ second-largest moon. Although Herschel reported observing four other moons at the time, the Royal Astronomical Society would later determine that this claim was spurious. It would be almost five decades after Titania and Oberon was discovered that an astronomer other than Herschel would observe them. In addition, Titania would be referred to as “the first satellite of Uranus” for many years – or by the designation Uranus I, which was given to it by William Lassell in 1848. By 1851, Lassell began to number all four known satellites in order of their distance from the planet by Roman numerals, at which point Titania’s designation became Uranus III.

By 1852, Herschel’s son John, and at the behest of Lassell himself, suggested the moon’s name be changed to Titania, the Queen of the Fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This was consistent with all of Uranus’ satellites, which were given names from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. A montage of Uranus’s moons. Image credit: NASA Size, Mass and Orbit: With a diameter of 1,578 kilometers, a surface area of 7,820,000 km² and a mass of 3.527±0.09 × 1021 kg, Titania is the largest of Uranus’ moons and the eighth largest moon in the Solar System. At a distance of about 436,000 km (271,000 mi), Titania is also the second farthest from the planet of the five major moons. Titania’s moon also has a small eccentricity and is inclined very little relative to the equator of Uranus. It’s orbital period, which is 8.7 days, is also coincident with it’s rotational period.

This means that Titania is a synchronous (or tidally-locked) satellite, with one face always pointing towards Uranus at all times. Because Uranus orbits the Sun on its side, and its moons orbit the planet’s equatorial plane, they are all subject to an extreme seasonal cycle, where the northern and southern poles experience 42 years of either complete darkness or complete sunlight. Composition: Scientists believe Titania is composed of equal parts rock (which may include carbonaceous materials and organic compounds) and ice. This is supported by examinations that indicate that Titania has an unusually high-density for a Uranian satellite (1.71 g/cm³). The presence of water ice is supported by infrared spectroscopic observations made in 2001–2005, which have revealed crystalline water ice on the surface of the moon. Uranus and its five major moons, with Titania being the farthest left. Credit: space.com It is also believed that Titania is differentiated into a rocky core surrounded by an icy mantle. If true, this would mean that the core’s radius is approx.

520 km (320 mi), which would mean the core accounts for 66% of the radius of the moon, and 58% of its mass. As with Uranus’ other major moons, the current state of the icy mantle is unknown. However, if the ice contains enough ammonia or other antifreeze, Titania may have a liquid ocean layer at the core-mantle boundary. The thickness of this ocean, if it exists, is up to 50 km (31 mi) and its temperature is around 190 K. Naturally, it is unlikely that such an ocean could support life. But assuming this ocean supports hydrothermal vents on its floor, it is possible life could exist in small patches close to the core. However, the internal structure of Oberon depends heavily on its thermal history, which is poorly known at present. Voyager 2: The only direct observations made of Titania were conducted by the Voyager 2 space probe, which photographed the moon during its flyby of Uranus in January 1986. These images covered about 40% of the surface, but only 24% was photographed with the precision required for geological mapping.

Voyager’s flyby of Titania coincided with the southern hemisphere’s summer solstice, when nearly the entire northern hemisphere was unilluminated. As with the other major moon’s of Uranus, this prevented the surface from being mapped in any detail. No other spacecraft has visited the Uranian system or Titania before or since, and no mission is planned in the foreseeable future. Interesting Facts: Titania is intermediate in terms of brightness, occupying a middle spot between the dark moons of Oberon and Umbriel and the bright moons of Ariel and Miranda . It’s surface is generally red in color (less so than Oberon), except where fresh impact have taken place, which have left the surface blue in color. The surface of Titania is less heavily cratered than the surface of either Oberon or Umbriel, suggesting that its surface is much younger. Like all of Uranus’ major moons, it’s geology is influenced by a combination of impact craters and endogenic resurfacing. Whereas the former acted over the moon’s entire history and influenced all its surfaces, the latter processes were mainly active following the moon’s formation and resulted in a smoothing out of its features – hence the low number of present-day impact craters.

Overall, scientists have recognized three classes of geological feature on Titania. These include craters, faults (or scarps) and what are known as grabens (sometimes called canyons). Titania’s craters range in diameter from a few kilometers to 326 kilometers – in the case of the largest known crater, Gertrude . Titania’s surface is also intersected by a system of enormous faults (scarps); and in some places, two parallel scarps mark depressions in the satellite’s crust, forming grabens (aka. canyons). The grabens on Titania range in diameter from 20 to 50 kilometers (12–31 mi) and in a relief (i.e. depth) from 2 to 5 km. The most prominent graben on Titania is the Messina Chasma, which runs for about 1,500 kilometers (930 mi) from the equator almost to the south pole. The grabens are probably the youngest geological features on Titania, since they cut through all craters and even the smooth plains. Voyager 2’s highest-resolution image of Titania, showing cratered plains, enormous rifts and long scarps.

Near the bottom, the crater Ursula is split by the graben Belmont Chasma. Credit: NASA Like Oberon, the surface features on Titania have been named after characters in works by Shakespeare, with all of the physical features are named after female characters. For instance, the crater Gertrude is named after Hamlet’s mother, while other craters – Ursula, Jessica, and Imogen – are named after characters from Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice, and Cymebline, respectively. Interestingly, the presence of carbon dioxide on the surface suggests that Titania may also have a tenuous seasonal atmosphere of CO², much like that of the Jovian moon Callisto . Other gases, like nitrogen or methane, are unlikely to be present, because Titania’s weak gravity could not prevent them from escaping into space. Like all of Uranus’ moons, much remains to be discovered about this most-massive of her satellites. In the coming years, one can only hope that NASA, the ESA, or other space agencies decide that another Voyager-like mission is need to the outer Solar System. Until such time, Uranus and the many moons that orbit it will continue to keep secrets from us.

You should also check out Titania and the moon Titania . Astronomy Cast has an episode on William Herschel you will find interesting. Reference: The Mysterious Moons of Uranus | Astronotes The Mysterious Moons of Uranus admin – July 31, 2013 Posted in: Planets With only two planets in our solar system without moons (Mercury and Venus) our curiosity is a little spoilt for choice. Normally when people begin to search about for information on planets with the most interesting moons dominant planets like Jupiter and Saturn tend to win people’s attention while others fall to the side-lines, destined to go unloved and unnoticed. But even the less noticed have a lot to offer so let’s uncover the mysteries of the rather small moons of the Georgian Planet Uranus. William Herschel: It’s a law of astronomy communication that this picture must be used in any article about things Uranian. (Image credit :via Wikimedia.org) Uranus itself is a very interesting planet so of course it should have some interesting moons. It actually has the third most moons in the solar system with 27 known natural satellites orbiting around the planet.

Now these moons are actually quite small with Uranus’s largest moon Titania having half the diameter of our own moon! Uranus’s moons are also quite light, in fact if you were where to add up the mass of all Uranus’s moons it would account for less than half of the mass of Neptune’s largest moon Triton. But these moons are anything but boring! Uranus has five quite big moons that where obviously the first moons of the planet to be discovered due to their size. Oberon and Titania are the largest of the five and were found by the planet’s discoverer William Herschel in 1787. Then the moon-hunting astronomer William Lassel (1799-1880) who discovered the first moon of Neptune…just 17 days after Neptune was discovered! He discovered Ariel and Umbriel in 1851. It wasn’t until a century later when the final of the five major moons, Miranda was discovered by Gerard Kuiper. The rest of Uranus’s moons were not to be discovered until the Voyager 2’s 1986 fly by and by the Hubble Space Telescope and more advanced ground telescopes.

None of the moons have been found to have any form of atmosphere most likely due to their size and lack of ability to have a large enough gravitational force to have one so I don’t think there will be any future plans to set up homes on these chilly worlds. Uranus and Ariel seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. (Image credit:NASA-Space Telescope Science Institute) The rest of the moons of Uranus are a lot smaller with many astronomers believing that they are actually captured asteroids and in comparison to some of the other systems of satellites orbiting around the other planets even Uranus’s major moons aren’t exactly big but they still have their peculiarities. In their naming for example, they already differ from other moons, thanks to William Herschel. When Herschel first discovered the planet Uranus in 1781 he originally wanted to name the planet Georgium Sidus (George’s star) or the Georgian Planet after King George III as a tribute to the king but unanimous disapproval across world astronomers meant that Uranus was more suitable in sticking with the tradition of naming planets after gods from Roman and Greek mythology (except for Earth of course).

But the Herschel family got a mini celestial coup when William’s son Sir John originated a pattern of naming the Uranian moons after characters from the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope (see Comments for more on this). We all have our faults, but Titania has more than most. (Image credit: NASA) So as I have stated most of Uranus’s moons are quite tiny and we lack information on many of them but we can look at a few of its most interesting moons, especially the five major moons. Let’s begin with Uranus’s largest two moons, the husband and wife of Uranus’s lunar system, Titania and Oberon. Titania is the largest of the moon of Uranus and is named after the Queen of the Fairies in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer-night’s Dream. Like all of Uranus’s moons it is made of half water ice and half rocky material with some astronomers referring to these types of moons as “dirty ice balls”. The surface of Titania is covered in craters, rift valleys and faults. There are few quite large craters with the rest being quite small but what’s interesting is that many of the craters are half submerged indicating that the surface of Titania is quite young.

The craters also have brightly covered ejecta material kicked up from the surface from impact just like other craters. It has a few rift valleys which can be caused by plates moving below the surface. It has one rift valley that stretches across 1000 miles (1600km). Also the existence of faults suggests that the moon of Titania was geologically active in the past as faults are fractures that can be found on planets and moons that allow movement along the surface. It is believed Titania’s surface cooled before its interior which created these many faults and rifts in the surface. Oberon, spot the the four mile high mountain! (Image credit: NASA) The second largest moon Oberon is named after Titania’s husband from A Midsummer-night’s Dream and so is the King of the Fairies. Like Titania, Oberon has many faults and rifts that suggest some form of geological activity in the past but it has a few more mysterious features. It has many more larger craters than its ‘spouse’ and there is a mysterious substance that lies on the floor of them with some theories suggesting it to be dirty water that has upwelled from beneath the surface on impact.

Like Titania, it is also half rock and half ice but it has a mountain that reaches four miles about its surface in the southern hemisphere but the fact it is so heavily cratered and there is a lack of other surface features indicates that Oberon may have been a little more stable than his tempestuous wife. Umbriel (Image credit: NASA) Nest we have the dark ‘dusky sprite’ Umbriel, the third largest moon, named after the melancholy sprite from Alexander Pope’s epic poem, The Rape of the Lock. Like the other moons of Uranus it is a dirty ice ball but it is strangely very dark, Umbriel only reflects about half the light of Uranus’s brightest moon, Ariel and astronomers are not fully sure what causes this. Like Oberon it doesn’t have many features which indicate that it has been relatively stable since the moon’s formation. That is not say it doesn’t not have the accessory that accompanies most moons. Umbriel does have craters and a few which stands out from it’s dark surface. Some of Umbriel’s craters are much brighter than the areas around them including a crater near the top of the moon nicknamed the ‘Fluorescent Cheerio’.

Round in shape and extremely bright, this is believed to be the floor of crater which may have been exposed material from deeper under the moon’s surface which has been revealed after impact. Ariel (Image credit: NASA) The fourth largest moon is also the brightest, Ariel named after the mischievous sprite from Shakespeare’s, The Tempest. Ariel is one of the two major moons that may not have had a calm and peaceful past due to the many interconnecting and deep rift valleys that cross it’s surface. Some stretch across hundreds of miles and can reach depths of 6 miles! These rifts also have ridges which are believed to have been created by ice upwelling from the interior of the moon. These deep rift valleys are very smooth on the floor which would lead us to believe some form of liquid eroded them but this could definitely not be water as water has the toughness of steel in these cold temperatures. The liquid was more likely to be liquid ammonia, methane or carbon monoxide, definitely nothing we would wish to take a swim in! Miranda (Image credit: NASA) Last but definitely not least of the five major moons is the jigsaw moon of Miranda.

This moon is the fifth largest moon and is the innermost located natural satellite of the five major moons. It is named after the daughter of Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Miranda can boast uniqueness compared to other moons in the solar system, unlike any other moon its surface is like an assorted, jumbled up jigsaw, as if someone has glued pieces of a moon together in the wrong order. Like the other moons of Uranus it is made of half water ice and rocky material. It was half believed to lack much activity before its wonders were revealed by Voyager 2. It’s surface is a mixture of massive faults and strange rifts. It has extremely deep canyons measuring nearly 12 miles deep which is massive for a moon that is only 290 miles wide! It’s most stunning feature is what is known as the ‘chevron’, light and dark groves that join to form a ‘V’ shape that dominates the moon’s surface. The faults have also lead to the formation of massive cliffs which include one that is 3 miles high which is three times taller than the Earth’s Grand Canyon is deep.

Originally astronomers believed Miranda was shattered multiple times and reformed but others have more recent theories that upwellings of partially melted ice are the root cause of Miranda’s violent past. The strange terrain of Miranda (Image credit: NASA) The five major moons of Uranus are dainty but very interesting with some of the most baffling occurrences and features but some of its smaller moons can shine on stage too. Uranus has multiple shepherd moons that help maintain its dark system of rings. Shepherd moons are just ordinary moons that are literally in the right place at the right time. They can orbit on the inner and outer areas of a planet’s ring system and help define it by hovering up any dust and debris that tries to escape. Depending on the location if it’s in the inner or outer area of the ring it will help speed up or slow down particles to aid the retention of the ring. Two of the most well-known shepherd moons in the solar system are Uranus’s moons Cordelia and Ophelia. Cordelia was named after the daughter of Lear in Shakespeare’s King Lear and is only 9 miles wide but it is fast moving and is on the inside of Uranus’s brightest ring.

Its pace causes the particles to speed up and thus ‘shepherds’ the particles into a higher orbit. Outside the brightest ring’s orbit we have Ophelia, named after Polonius’s daughter in Shakespeare’s, Hamlet. Ophelia does the opposite of Cordelia with its slow pace causing the particles to slow down and into a lower orbit. This team effort causes Cordelia and Ophelia to create a well-defined, narrow and bright ring around Uranus. The moons of Uranus are often neglected in studies but despite their lacking in size them definitely makeup for in appearance and purpose. The moons of Uranus have helped us realise that some moons help create the beautiful features of planets. The moons of Uranus still have many features that are unexplainable without future research and many still have very little known about them. There is also a possibility that there are still many more that have gone undetected. Only future observation will perhaps aid the uncovering of the mysteries of the moons of Uranus.

(Article by Kerry Scullion, Education Support Officer) BBC - Solar System - Titania (pictures, video, facts & news) Titania Titania Uranus's largest moon Titania was photographed by Voyager 2 in 1986. Images taken by the probe showed scientists that the surface has impact craters and a large fault. Density measurements suggest Titania is composed mainly of water ice and rock. Titania was discovered in 1787 by Uranus's discoverer, William Herschel . Photo: Titania taken by the Voyager 2 probe (NASA/JPL) About Titania Titania is the largest of the moons of Uranus and the eighth largest moon in the Solar System at a diameter of 1,578 kilometres (981 mi). Discovered by William Herschel in 1787, Titania is named after the queen of the fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Its orbit lies inside Uranus's magnetosphere. Titania consists of approximately equal amounts of ice and rock, and is probably differentiated into a rocky core and an icy mantle. A layer of liquid water may be present at the core–mantle boundary.

The surface of Titania, which is relatively dark and slightly red in color, appears to have been shaped by both impacts and endogenic processes. It is covered with numerous impact craters reaching up to 326 kilometres (203 mi) in diameter, but is less heavily cratered than Oberon, outermost of the five large moons of Uranus. Titania probably underwent an early endogenic resurfacing event which obliterated its older, heavily cratered surface. Titania's surface is cut by a system of enormous canyons and scarps, the result of the expansion of its interior during the later stages of its evolution. Like all major moons of Uranus, Titania probably formed from an accretion disk which surrounded the planet just after its formation. Infrared spectroscopy conducted from 2001 to 2005 revealed the presence of water ice as well as frozen carbon dioxide on the surface of Titania, which in turn suggested that the moon may have a tenuous carbon dioxide atmosphere with a surface pressure of about 10 nanopascals (10−13 bar).

Measurements during Titania's occultation of a star put an upper limit on the surface pressure of any possible atmosphere at 1–2 mPa (10–20 nbar). The Uranian system has been studied up close only once, by the spacecraft Voyager 2 in January 1986. It took several images of Titania, which allowed mapping of about 40% of its surface. Shakespeare's Moons, the moons of Uranus - Bob the Alien's Tour of the Solar System Welcome to Uranus The Tilted Planet Discovery of Uranus Shakespeare's Moons Miranda, a moon of Uranus Facts about Uranus Thousands of years ago, when the Romans and Greeks were naming the planets that were visible to them, they decided to name them after their gods. Mercury (Greek: Hermes) was the Roman god of commerce, travel and industry, Venus (Greek: Aphrodite) was the goddess of love and beauty, Mars (Greek: Ares) was the god of war, Jupiter (Greek: Zeus) was the king of the gods, and Saturn (Greek: Cronos) was the god of agriculture.

Hundreds of years later, even when people knew that the planets weren't actually gods, they still kept with tradition and named newly discovered planets after mythological characters. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were all discovered in modern times, but their names are all still linked to ancient myths. Uranus is the Greek ruler of the heavens, Neptune (Greek: Poseidon) is the Roman god of the sea, and Pluto (Greek: Hades) is god of the underworld. The names of moons orbiting planets are also influenced by mythology. This is all except for one planet. The moons orbiting Uranus are named after characters in plays, mostly after characters in plays written by William Shakespeare. Why would you name moons after characters in a play though? Before I answer that, here's my quick guide to Shakespeare. One of the greatest ever writers of the English language was William Shakespeare. He was born on 23rd April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England and during his life, wrote about 154 poems (called sonnets) and 38 plays. From 1588, he lived in London where many of his plays were performed in front of the courts of the Royal Family.

Although his plays are now over 400 years old, they are still performed and studied today, containing themes and ideas which are as relevant now as they were when they were first written. The Globe Theatre in London was opened in 2000 and is a modern day replica of the type of theatre in which Shakespeare's plays would have originally been performed. Some of Shakespeare's most famous plays are Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Shakespeare died on 23rd April 1616 and is buried in Stratford-upon-Avon church. Although Shakespeare wrote a large number of plays, these plays can be placed into four categories: Comedies, Histories, Tragedies and Romances. The Comedies were often farcical comedies of error, kind of like Fawlty Towers for the 16th Century (e.g. A Midsummer Night's Dream) . The Histories were based on real historical events, usually about English history (Henry IV, Part 1) or ancient history. Tragedies were plays with darker themes (such as betrayal and jealousy) and by the end of the play, most of the characters had died!

(Romeo and Juliet, King Lear). The Romances were a bit lighter in theme and featured elements of fantasy and magic (A Winter's Tale, The Tempest). William Shakespeare is a hugely influential figure in English literature today. Students still analyse and discuss his works, and tourists from all over the world visit Stratford-upon-Avon to visit Shakespeare's house (pictured right). His importance inspired William Herschel in 1787 to name some of the moons known to be orbiting Uranus after characters in Shakespeare's plays. In 1781, Uranus became the first planet to be " discovered ". The other planets that were known of at the time ( Mercury , Venus , Mars , Jupiter and Saturn ) plus the Sun and the Moon had been observed for tens of thousands of years from Earth and already had names, named by the Greeks and Romans after their gods. Before 1781, nobody knew that Uranus existed and people thought there were only six planets in the Solar System. Although Uranus had already been spotted numerous times, it was English astronomer William Herschel who first recognised that Uranus was actually a planet and not a star .

Because the planet was discovered by an English astronomer , not an ancient Roman or Greek, it was very nearly named Georgian Sidus ("George's Star"), in honour of England's ruler at the time, King George the Third. Unsurprisingly, the scientific community didn't really like this name, wanting the new planet to keep the tradition of being named after Roman or Greek gods. So the seventh planet in the Solar System became known as Uranus, a name suggested by German astronomer Johann Elert Bode. In 1787, a few years after discovering Uranus, William Herschel discovered two large moons orbiting the planet. Wanting to honour his British background once more, Herschel decided this time to honour the greatest playwright in English history by naming the two moons after characters in one of his plays. The moons were named Titania and Oberon after the King and Queen of the Fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Again, some people (such as the German ambassador) kicked up a fuss, wanting the moons to be named after classical figures, but the names chosen by Herschel remained and the tradition of naming moons of Uranus after literary characters began.

In 1851, William Lassell discovered two more large moons orbiting Uranus. These were named Ariel and Umbriel. Ariel and Umbriel are characters in Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock, names chosen by Willian Herschel's son, John. These are the only two moons orbiting Uranus named after characters in non-Shakespearean plays, although one of the main characters in The Tempest by Shakespeare is also named Ariel. The next moon to be discovered was in 1948 by American astronomer Gerard Kuiper. This moon was named Miranda, another character from The Tempest. It wasn't until Voyager visited Uranus in 1986 that any more moons were discovered. All of these moons, and all moons discovered since then have been named after characters in Shakespeare's plays. Even moons yet to be discovered will be named after Shakespeare's characters. He may have knew his plays were pretty good back when he was writing them, but even Shakespeare wouldn't have imagined that his characters would one day become immortalised in worlds millions and millions of miles away from his home in Stratford!

Here is a list of all of the moons of Uranus, their size and location, the date they were discovered and where their names originate. Name e Uranus moons named after Shakespearean plays 1Miranda is - ASTRO - 104 View Full Document e) Uranus moons named after Shakespearean plays: 1.Miranda is from the Shakespearean play “The Tempest” 2. Ariel is from “The Tempest” 3. Umbriel is from “Rape of the Lock” 4. Titania is the queen of the fairies in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” 5. Oberon is the king of the fairies in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” 3 This preview has intentionally blurred sections. Sign up to view the full version. View Full Document References: 1. "Shakespeare's The Tempest at Absolute Shakespeare." Absolute Shakespeare - Plays, Quotes, Summaries, Essays. .. Web. 30 Oct. 2010. < 2. "Introduction to Shakespeare's Ariel from The Tempest." Shakespeare Online . Web. 30 Oct. 2010. < online.com/plays/characters/arielbio.html>. 3.

"* Umbriel - (Astronomy): Definition." * Home . Web. 30 Oct. 2010. < 4. Increase, By Their. "Midsummer Night's Dream - Titania Speaking to Me." William Shakespeare Experience . Web. 30 Oct. 2010. < dream-titania-speaking.html>. 5. "A Midsummer Night's Dream Synopsis." Shakespeare Resource Center . Web. 30 Oct. 2010. < 4) Mission scientists used Voyager to determine the masses of the outer planets by measuring the amount of the boost it got from passing a planet’s gravitational pull. For example, Jupiter would have a huge boost to explore further planets since it has the second greatest gravitational force (after the Sun). Therefore, the higher the gravity of the nearby planet, the higher the boost will be, and the higher the mass is. 5) a) No, only Earth can hang on to water water it its atmosphere because Titan’s velocity is 3x 10 -11 times greater than its escape velocity. Work shown: b) No, Titan also cannot hang on to atomic hydrogen. Work shown: 4 This is the end of the preview. Sign up to access the rest of the document.

TERM Karen Sanchez Astronomy 104 Professor Wilcots DIS 404 21 November 2010 Homework 4 1. Astro 104- HW 4 Titania, moon of Uranus - The Solar System on Sea and Sky (NASA/JPL) Queen of the Fairies Titania [Ty-TAY-ne-ah] is the fourteenth of Uranus' moons and is the largest. Although it is the largest moon of Uranus, it is much smaller than Triton, the largest moon of Uranus' sister planet, Neptune. It was named after the Queen of the Fairies and wife of Oberon in Shakespeare's Midsummer-Night's Dream. Titania was discovered in 1787 by Sir William Herschel, who also discovered Uranus and Oberon. Most of what we know about Titania was learned from the mission of Voyager 2 when it flew past the moon in 1986. A Large, Dirty Ice Ball Titania is believed to be composed of about half water ice and half rocky material. It is very similar in composition to Ariel, but is much larger.

It is also similar to Saturn's moon, Rhea, although it contains a greater percentage of rock. Some astronomers have referred to these moons as "dirty ice balls" because they resemble a ball of ice mixed with dirt and rock. The surface of Titania is littered with impact craters. Many of these craters are surrounded by brightly colored ejecta material. This material was thrown out onto the moon's surface by the impacts that formed the craters. Features of Titania Surface features on Titania range from impact craters to rift valleys and faults. There are a few large impact basins on the surface, but most of the craters are small. A large, double-walled crater is located near the top of the moon. Many of the craters on Titania appear to be partially submerged. This would seem to indicate that the surface is relatively young, and has resurfaced itself at some point in the recent past. Several interconnecting rift valleys can be seen crossing the moon's surface. These are similar to the valleys on Ariel except that they are not quite as extensive. One of these valleys is 1000 miles (1600 km) in length. Several faults also exist on Titania's surface.

This indicated that the moon was probably geologically active at some time in the distant past. Some astronomers believe that Titania's surface may have cooled before its interior. When the interior began to cool, it expanded and formed the rift valleys and faults that are visible today. Titania has no atmosphere and no magnetic field. Uranus’ Moon of Titania - Technology Org Technology Org Uranus’ Moon of Titania Posted July 9, 2015 Like all of the Solar Systems’ gas giants, Uranus has an extensive system of moons. In fact, astronomers can now account for 27 moons in orbit around Uranus. Of these, none are greater in size, mass, or surface area than Titania. One of the first moon’s to be discovered around Uranus, this heavily cratered and scarred moon was appropriately named after the fictional Queen of the Fairies. Voyager 2 image of Titania, Uranus’ largest moon. Credit: NASA Discovery and Naming: Titania was discovered by William Herschel on January 11th, 1787, the English astronomer who had discovered Uranus in 1781.

The discovery was also made on the same day that he discovered Oberon , Uranus’ second-largest moon. Although Herschel reported observing four other moons at the time, the Royal Astronomical Society would later determine that this claim was spurious. It would be almost five decades after Titania and Oberon was discovered that an astronomer other than Herschel would observe them. In addition, Titania would be referred to as “the first satellite of Uranus” for many years – or by the designation Uranus I, which was given to it by William Lassell in 1848. By 1851, Lassell began to number all four known satellites in order of their distance from the planet by Roman numerals, at which point Titania’s designation became Uranus III. By 1852, Herschel’s son John, and at the behest of Lassell himself, suggested the moon’s name be changed to Titania, the Queen of the Fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This was consistent with all of Uranus’ satellites, which were given names from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. A montage of Uranus’s moons.

Image credit: NASA Size, Mass and Orbit: With a diameter of 1,578 kilometers, a surface area of 7,820,000 km² and a mass of 3.527±0.09 × 1021 kg, Titania is the largest of Uranus’ moons and the eighth largest moon in the Solar System. At a distance of about 436,000 km (271,000 mi), Titania is also the second farthest from the planet of the five major moons. Titania’s moon also has a small eccentricity and is inclined very little relative to the equator of Uranus. It’s orbital period, which is 8.7 days, is also coincident with it’s rotational period. This means that Titania is a synchronous (or tidally-locked) satellite, with one face always pointing towards Uranus at all times. Because Uranus orbits the Sun on its side, and its moons orbit the planet’s equatorial plane, they are all subject to an extreme seasonal cycle, where the northern and southern poles experience 42 years of either complete darkness or complete sunlight.

Composition: Scientists believe Titania is composed of equal parts rock (which may include carbaceous materials and organic compounds) and ice. This is supported by examinations that indicate that Titania has an unusually high-density for a Uranian satellite (1.71 g/cm³). The presence of water ice is supported by infrared spectroscopic observations made in 2001–2005, which have revealed crystalline water ice on the surface of the moon. Uranus and its five major moons, with Titania being the farthest left. Credit: space.com It is also believed that Titania is differentiated into a rocky core surrounded by an icy mantle. If true, this would mean that the core’s radius is approx. 520 km (320 mi), which would mean the core accounts for 66% of the radius of the moon, and 58% of its mass. As with Uranus’ other major moons, the current state of the icy mantle is unknown. However, if the ice contains enough ammonia or other antifreeze, Titania may have a liquid ocean layer at the core-mantle boundary.

The thickness of this ocean, if it exists, is up to 50 km (31 mi) and its temperature is around 190 K. Naturally, it is unlikely that such an ocean could support life. But assuming this ocean supports hydrothermal vents on its floor, it is possible life could exist in small patches close to the core. However, the internal structure of Oberon depends heavily on its thermal history, which is poorly known at present. Voyager 2: The only direct observations made of Titania were conducted by the Voyager 2 space probe, which photographed the moon during its flyby of Uranus in January 1986. These images covered about 40% of the surface, but only 24% was photographed with the precision required for geological mapping. Voyager’s flyby of Titania coincided with the southern hemisphere’s summer solstice, when nearly the entire northern hemisphere was unilluminated. As with the other major moon’s of Uranus, this prevented the surface from being mapped in any detail. No other spacecraft has visited the Uranian system or Titania before or since, and no mission is planned in the foreseeable future.

Interesting Facts: Titania is intermediate in terms of brightness, occupying a middle spot between the dark moons of Oberon and Umbriel and the bright moons of Ariel and Miranda . It’s surface is generally red in color (less so than Oberon), except where fresh impact have taken place, which have left the surface blue in color. The surface of Titania is less heavily cratered than the surface of either Oberon or Umbriel, suggesting that its surface is much younger. Like all of Uranus’ major moons, it’s geology is influenced by a combination of impact craters and endogenic resurfacing. Whereas the former acted over the moon’s entire history and influenced all its surfaces, the latter processes were mainly active following the moon’s formation and resulted in a smoothing out of its features – hence the low number of present-day impact craters. Overall, scientists have recognized three classes of geological feature on Titania. These include craters, faults (or scarps) and what are known as grabens (sometimes called canyons). Titania’s craters range in diameter from a few kilometers to 326 kilometers – in the case of the largest known crater, Gertrude .

Titania’s surface is also intersected by a system of enormous faults (scarps); and in some places, two parallel scarps mark depressions in the satellite’s crust, forming grabens (aka. canyons). The grabens on Titania range in diameter from 20 to 50 kilometers (12–31 mi) and in a relief (i.e. depth) from 2 to 5 km. The most prominent graben on Titania is the Messina Chasma, which runs for about 1,500 kilometers (930 mi) from the equator almost to the south pole. The grabens are probably the youngest geological features on Titania, since they cut through all craters and even the smooth plains. Voyager 2’s highest-resolution image of Titania, showing cratered plains, enormous rifts and long scarps. Near the bottom, the crater Ursula is split by the graben Belmont Chasma. Credit: NASA Like Oberon, the surface features on Titania have been named after characters in works by Shakespeare, with all of the physical features are named after female characters.

For instance, the crater Gertrude is named after Hamlet’s mother, while other craters – Ursula, Jessica, and Imogen – are named after characters from Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice, and Cymebline, respectively. Interestingly, the presence of carbon dioxide on the surface suggests that Titania may also have a tenuous seasonal atmosphere of CO², much like that of the Jovian moon Callisto . Other gases, like nitrogen or methane, are unlikely to be present, because Titania’s weak gravity could not prevent them from escaping into space. Like all of Uranus’ moons, much remains to be discovered about this most-massive of her satellites. In the coming years, one can only hope that NASA, the ESA, or other space agencies decide that another Voyager-like mission is need to the outer Solar System. Until such time, Uranus and the many moons that orbit it will continue to keep secrets from us.

Source: Universe Today , written by Matt Williams Related Topics: Wikijunior:Solar System/Uranus - Wikibooks, open books for an open world Wikijunior:Solar System/Uranus This is the latest reviewed version , checked on 21 December 2013. (+) Quality: minimal Jump to: navigation , search Uranus, the seventh planet from the Sun, was discovered by William Herschel on March 13, 1781. [1] Uranus as seen from Voyager 2 Uranus Facts: Uranus's rings look white in pictures, but they are really made of asphalt-colored material. When it was first discovered, Uranus was mistaken for a star. It was named "34 Tauri". Uranus rotates on its side It is the only planet to do so. Contents How big is Uranus?[ edit ] Comparison of the size of Uranus and the Earth Uranus is 51,118 kilometers or about four Earths wide. It is the third widest and fourth heaviest planet in the Solar System.

What is the surface of Uranus like?[ edit ] Uranus does not have a surface that you could stand on without going deep into the atmosphere. Under the atmosphere, there may be an even mixture of rock and ice. [2] What are the rings around Uranus like?[ edit ] Uranus has eleven rings. They are dark in colour and very hard to see. They were discovered by accident in 1977. Scientists were studying a bright star near Uranus. However, the star's light was blocked before and after it disappeared behind Uranus. From this, they figured out that Uranus has a ring system. [3] What are its moons like?[ edit ] Uranus's rings and moons Uranus has 27 known moons, which places it third in the Solar System for number of moons. The five main ones are Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon. [4] Oberon [ edit ] Oberon is the outermost of the major moons of Uranus. It is made of the same things as Titania. It has many craters. Some of them have white rays around them and dark crater floors. It was named after the King of the Fairies in A Midsummer's Night Dream.

[9] Other Moons[ edit ] There are 13 tiny moons known to be orbiting Uranus inside Miranda's orbit. Nine more tiny moons are known to be in big orbits beyond Oberon's orbit. [10] How long is a day on Uranus?[ edit ] One day on Uranus is about 17.24 Earth hours long. Uranus spins on its side, maybe because of a big impact early in the history of the Solar System. [11] How long is a year on Uranus?[ edit ] One year on Uranus would be 30,708 days or 84 years on Earth. [12] What is Uranus made of?[ edit ] Unlike Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus is thought to be made mostly of rock and ice. The gases in its atmosphere are 83% hydrogen, 15% helium, and 2% methane. Other gases found in smaller amounts are ammonia, water, and methane. [13] Uranus' blue color comes from methane clouds, which absorb red light and reflect blue light.

[14] How much would Uranus's gravity pull on me?[ edit ] If you were floating close to the cloud tops of Uranus, you would be pulled down with a force about 89% of Earth's gravity. [15] Who is Uranus named after?[ edit ] Uranus was named after Ouranos, the Greek name for the sky. Ouranos was the ancient Greek deity of the heavens, the earliest supreme God. According to Greek mythology, Ouranos was the husband and son of Gaia, Mother Earth. [16] How Many Moons Does Uranus Have? - Technology Org Technology Org How Many Moons Does Uranus Have? Posted June 22, 2015 Have you ever wondered how many moons Uranus has? Like all of the giant planets, it’s got rather a lot! In fact, astronomers can now account for 27 moons that are described as “Uranian”. And, much like Jupiter and Saturn, the process of discovering these moons has been long and involved on multiple astronomers. Uranus and its system of Moons.

Credit: NASA/Hubble Discovery and Naming: The process of discovery began in the 18th century with astronomer William Herschel . On January 11th, 1878, he observed the moons of Oberon and Titania, six years after discovering Uranus itself. At the time, Herschel claimed to have observed up to six satellites, as well as a ring (these were later discredited). For fifty years, Herschel’s instrument was the only one with which the moons had been seen. However, by the 1840s, more advanced instruments and a more favorable position of Uranus led to Oberon and Titania being viewed again, as well as the detection of two additional moons. These moons, Ariel and Umbriel, were detected by William Lassell in 1851. Along with Oberon and Titania, Lassell numbered the moons I through IV from Uranus outward. In 1852, Herschel’s son John Herschel gave the four moons their current names, using characters from Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock, and William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Ariel and Umbriel were named for Pope’s characters, while Titania and Oberon were named for the queen and king of the fairies in Dream. Images of Uranus taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Image credit: Hubble In 1948, Gerard Kuiper discovered the smallest and the last of the five large, spherical moons. Consistent with the names applied by John Herschel, the planet was named Miranda after another one of Pope’s characters. Decades later, the flyby of the Voyager 2 space probe in January 1986 led to the discovery of ten further inner moons. Another satellite, Perdita, was retroactively discovered in 1999 after studying old Voyager photographs. Since 1997, nine distant irregular moons have been identified using ground-based telescopes. Two more small inner moons, Cupid and Mab, were discovered using the Hubble Space Telescope in 2003. As of 2012, the moon Margaret was the last Uranian moon to be discovered. Large Moons: The largest moons of Uranus are – in order of size – Miranda , Ariel , Umbriel , Oberon and Titania .

They range in diameter and mass from 472 km and 6.7 × 1019 kg for Miranda to 1578 km and 3.5 × 1021 kg for Titania. Each of these moons is particularly dark, with low bond and geometric albedos. Ariel is the brightest while Umbriel is the darkest. All of the large moons of Uranus are believed to have formed in the accretion disc, which existed around Uranus for some time after its formation, or resulted from the large impact suffered by Uranus early in its history. A montage of Uranus’s moons. Image credit: NASA Each one is comprised of roughly equal amounts of rock and ice, except for Miranda which is made primarily of ice. The ice component may include ammonia and carbon dioxide, while the rocky material is believed to be composed of carbonaceous material, including organic compounds. Their composition is believed to be differentiated, with an icy mantle surrounding a rocky core. In the case of Titania and Oberon, it is believed that liquid water oceans may exist at the core/mantle boundary.

Their surfaces are also heavily cratered; but in each case, endogenic resurfacing has led to a degree of renewal of their surfaces. Ariel appears to have the youngest surface with the fewest impact craters while Umbriel appears to be the the oldest and most cratered. The major moons of Uranus have no discernible atmosphere. Also, because of their orbit around Uranus, they experience extreme seasonal cycles. Uranus orbits the Sun almost on its side, and the large moons all orbit around Uranus’ equatorial plane, the northern and southern hemispheres experience prolonged periods of daytime and nighttime (42 years at a time). Inner Moons: As of 2008, Uranus is known to possess 13 inner moons who’s orbits lie inside that of Miranda. They are, in order of distance from the planet: Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Cupid, Belinda, Perdita, Puck and Mab. Consistent with the naming of the Uranus’ larger moons, all are named after characters from Shakespearean plays.

Uranus’ five largest moons shown in increasing distance from the planet. Note there is incomplete coverage of Miranda and Ariel. Image credit: NASA/JPL All inner moons are intimately connected to Uranus’ ring system, which probably resulted from the fragmentation of one or several small inner moons. Puck, at 162 km, is the largest of the inner moons of Uranus – and the only one imaged by Voyager 2 in any detail -while Puck and Mab are the two outermost inner satellites of Uranus. All inner moons are dark objects. They are made of water ice contaminated with a dark material, which is probably organic materials processed by Uranus’ radiation. The system is also chaotic and apparently unstable. Computer simulations estimate that collisions may occur, particularly between Desdemona and Cressida or Juliet within the next 100 million years. Irregular Moons: As of 2005, Uranus is also known to have nine irregular moons, which orbit it at a distance much greater than that of Oberon. All the irregular moons are probably captured objects that were trapped by Uranus soon after its formation.

They are, in order of distance from Uranus: Francisco, Caliban, Stephano, Trincutio, Sycorax, Margaret, Prospero, Setebos, and Ferdinard (once again, named for characters in Shakespearean plays). Uranus’s irregular moons range in size from about 150 km (Sycorax) to 18 km (Trinculo). With the exception of Margaret, all circle Uranus in retrograde orbits (meaning they orbit the planet in the opposite direction of its spin). Much like the Inner Moons, Uranus’ Irregulars are subject to chaotic instability. It is believed that some may collide with Inner Moons and even be ejected in the next 10 million to one billion years. Most of what is known about Uranus’ moons is owed to the Voyager 2 space probe, which remains the only spacecraft to have photographed the Uranian satellites up close. Nevertheless, what has been observed has been enough to keep astronomers and planetary scientists interested and guessing. Until the day comes when we can examine the Uranians in greater detail, they will continue to hold their share of secrets.

Here’s a link to NASA’s Solar System Exploration Guide on the moons of Uranus, and here’s an article about a Hubble discovery of new rings and moons around Uranus. Source: Universe Today , written by Matt Williams Related Topics:

Question: Which of the moons of Uranus is named after the queen of the fairies in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'?
Answer: TITANIA